Curious about the upcoming WordPress 2.4 release coming in January? Peter Westwood of Westi On WordPress reports every week, usually by Wednesday, on the status and development of the next version of WordPress, due January 24, 2008.
This week, he reported on fixes, development, and features for WordPress 2.4 such as changing the verb “Login” to “Log in” as well as improvements to the login process, a new get_user_by_email() function and improvements and fixes in the get_user functions, improved support for mt_allow_comments, and some news you may need to know before you make your next upgrade via subversion/trunk:
The last change means that the next time you login the value stored in the database will change – this means that if you do upgrade passed this point reverting back to an old version will invalidate all users passwords and they will need reseting. Therefore it is a good idea to backup up your users table before updating to the latest trunk.
There will be some big improvements to WordPress in the January release including a new administration interface. Prepare yourself for the changes by adding Westi’s RSS Feed to your feed reader and following along in the weekly Trac Timeline for WordPress 2.4 development.
The new features proposed and in development in WordPress 2.4 include:
- Administration Panel Redesign
- Widget-based Dashboard
- Ability to Add Multiple Widgets to Themes (and Dashboard/Admin Panels?)
- Comment Editing Undo
- Search to Include Pages and Posts
- Improved Cache
- Improved Security
Site Search Tags: wordpress, wordpress news, wordpress 2.4, peter westwood, wordpress trac, westi, wordpress digest 
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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network, and author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.
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48 Comments
While I’m not too concerned with changing “Login” to “Log in,” I am very interested in what it would mean to be able to use widgets on the dashboard. That would definitely be a nice touch, and I”m looking forward to it.
Josh Boldman
Thanks for the news. How about 2.3.2 it’s seem still posponded.
Btw, did you fix the bug in comment page? Moderating comment like delete,unapprove,approve and spam directly on comment page is not working.
Thanks for bringing much deserved attention to the excellent Westi’s work!
Although technically it has been been possible from time to time to go back to an older subversion revision of trunk without restoring a database, it has never been recommended, and has seldom been possible for major versions. The only reason I mention this is because it being called out here is the exception , not, unfortunately, the usual — so always be careful with upgrades, particularly if you live on the trunk 😉 . The wonderful thing is it is really easy to setup a WordPress development/testing environment on any computer — LAMP/WAMP is all you need.
@n-blue:
Moderating, deleting and such on the comments panel doesn’t work? Maybe you mean this fix to comment deletion handling?
WordPress 2.3.1 was released and 2.3.2 is a week late. I’m not sure they are going to release another update before January’s 2.4 release as so much work is going into that trunk, unless there’s a major security flaw found, but I’m not the one to ask.
thanks for that:) I was excited when I upgraded to 2.3 but there was nothing much on the front end… ( I am no coder lol ) now, I am waiting for the 2.4 for version 🙂
I’m so excited for the releasing of WP2.4
I have a short 2 minute podcast on the reason we use the term “log in.”
But they still don’t have a way to manage your tags! Slackers… xD
@Jenny:
And they won’t, according to what I’ve read. They are relying upon Plugins to help you choose which way you want to manage your tags – which many are beginning to think are fairly useless anyway, and WordPress was late to the game in adding them. Simple Tags WordPress Plugin is getting a lot of attention, and you can learn more in WordPress 2.3 Tag News.
What about being able to specify on which pages/posts widgets do or do not appear?
@drew:
I believe that control of where Widgets appear is a Plugin issue, not one in the core programming. You can always use a conditional tag in your WordPress Theme to designate which Widgets you want to appear where – until someone writes a Plugin.
WordPress is working hard on streamlining the core programming, making WordPress leaner, meaner, and faster. This means that if you want some customization, you have to turn to a WordPress Plugin.
Is there any screen captures around of the new admin interface? It is something I would like to see.
If WordPress has categories, and I can go to MANAGE -> CATEGORIES, why not have tags, and I go to MANAGE -> TAGS? What is the problem? Why do I have to install a plugin to manage my tags, in case I have tags in WP, which are part of the core?
I don’t get it, seriously…
Thanks for the information. Actually, I have just installed WordPress 2.3.1. So, I am trying to understand it. Again a new version? I think, they must give a look on the security measures! Thanks.
Tag Managing Thing is probably the best tag managing plugin I ever used.
Will
@Earn Blogger:
Well, then you’re late to the game. 😀 The security measures are SERIOUS reason enough to upgrade.
@Michel:
Good question. I, too, was caught off by the method they chose, and the fact that they added tags so late in the game.
Mt allow comments? meaning movable type?
@Laarni:
Probably as it is for importing comments.
I wanted to have another WP going. Can not wait for the new version. I guess as compared to other CMS like joomla or drupal, WP needs to improve on the security.
@Adam:
You do not have to wait for anything. Security patches are part of our computer and technological life. WordPress is not exempt, they are just part of the process. The latest version is more secure than previous, as will the next and so on.
As long as there are time-waster people who have nothing better to do than figure out how to break things, there will be need for others who spend a lot of time fixing and preventing the time-waster’s efforts from working.
A lot of Mac/Apple users used to brag about being “virus free”. Guess what? The popularity of the Mac and iPhone has brought them into the targets of evil doers. News is out that your Apple line of products are on their hit list.
Goodness “Login” to “Log in”??? Oh well. As for backing up the users table I would have thought that that’s a good idea to do everytime one upgrades WP.
I find myself searching still for a suitable editor.
Fckeditor doesn’t deal with images and the link button throws up a window only 1 inch wide. The TinyMCE plugin w/ 40 buttons doesn’t show horizontal rules in the preview window.
I like Fckeditor, but not with those drawbacks. Suggestions?
I have a feature request.
When you have email alerts oe, you get an email for trackbacks when you it’s a valid trackback. You also unfortunately get that email when there is a trackback spam that is caught by akismet. I’d like to propose that this logic please be updated so that emails are not generated for trackbacks caught by akismet if not globally then via an option switch.
Thank you.
@David:
This should be addressed to Akismet or the developers to get action on the issue if it is that important to you. It sounds like something that would bug many.
@Jim Spencer:
I don’t use the WYSIYWY-NOT editor. I used to experiment with the others, but found all lacking. I suggest not using one. Have you used the latest version found in the latest version of WordPress? And don’t forget, there maybe changes in 2.4 that will improve the semi-useless Rich Text Editor.
Lorelle, yes I started with the WP 3.2.1 editor, found it lacking, and have been searching ever since. With practice, I see your point.
However, I like clicking an icon and adding an instantaneous italic or bold and so on. A simple ability that speeds things along.
I think it was the default editor that I could not get it to retain a carriage return. I wanted, say, 2 spaces after a paragraph = hit enter twice. Looked good, saved, came back it was all mashed together again in one giant paragraph. I that that is what drove me to seek a new editor.
Boggles the mind that TinyMCE Advanced can’t load an images. I figured it was me and researched the file permissions, safemode in httpd.conf and so on. All was well, but the editor still won’t do images in FF or IE.
I guess I will resign, follow your lead, and only invoke the editor when I must. Or I could reverse it, and disable the plugin when I need to add an images. That just feels dumb, either way.
Many thanks for the quick reply and the ideas.
Cheers,
Jim.
Have they fixed the Blogroll vulnerability in 2.4?
Wao.. Not bad. I’m waiting for it.
@Jim Spencer:
Do you mean “default editor” as the Rich Text Editor? The line spaces issue is a big nag of mine. As for the different between clicking a button and typing it myself, I find it faster to type it myself rather than move my hand off the keyboard for the mouse and then hunt for the button on the screen.
I don’t understand what you mean by the TinyMCE editor not “loading images” as that’s confusing. Do you mean that you can click and drag an image in, or edit the image from within, or load the image from within the editor? If the link to the image, which is loaded through the load image section or linked to an already uploaded image, is there, it should be in the Rich Text Editor.
Either way, I have fought and fought and slowed down my blogging when using any form of Rich Text Editor, so I always go back to the old hand coded method. I hate that the Rich Text Editor does not look like what it will when published. And I hate it even more that they removed the post preview from the Write Post Panel. Slows things down even more and causes more headaches to preview things so I know a link isn’t borked and such.
Neil, the admin interface has not been worked on just yet, in fact if you look on Trac its plainly obvious that the admin hasn’t been worked on…. so far. I am eagerly awaiting a brand new interface, but I have stayed away from trac just to keep it a surprise.
Not that I intend to sound negative, but is there actually any ground breaking features to be introduced or are we going to have this trend of releasing point releases every four months? with the tiniest insignificant features? I think its time for a version 3.
Sorry I just had to say that.
I have been bouncing between editors, but I recall trying to load an image, while TinyMCE was installed, down in the area with tabs labeled Upload, Browse, Browse All. I selected the image, selected the radio buttons and clicked Send to Editor – nothing happened. So, I could use TinyMCE for everything quite happily, except for loading images, which is a big exception for a blogger and unacceptable. Thanks for the responses, I really appreciate it.
I have read a bit about others using special plugins just to deal with images. Any pointers or thoughts?
The last thing that is currently frustrating is that I like to space out the code view with carriage returns so that it is easier to read. After saving, it is again a pile of mushed together code. These seems to be the case in any editor, but currently am using the default WP editor. Any remedy for this, or explanation? I suppose WP is trying to condense/optimize the code?
Jim.
@Jim Spencer:
I don’t use the Plugin, but the built in Rich Text Editor, and it works fine, as well as using the non-Rich Text Editor in WordPress. The issue might be a Plugin issue, not WordPress. I reviewed and featured a lot of options for images in WordPress Plugins for Images, Photographs, and Graphics.
WordPress messes with the code when you save a post. That’s also one of the reasons I don’t use the Rich Text Editor. It runs the content through a “filter” file that removes “bad” code and tries to fix what looks bad. It’s just trying to help, but sometimes, it helps too much. Why I stick to the plain white box.
looks great to me. I just hope there are not as many major theme breaking changes as there were in 2.3
Lorelle, OK. I ready to swing with the Gorillas. Tidy and FCK editor plugins are deactivated. What else do I need to do to edit the way you do? I just have the standard WP editor with the Visual and Code tabs. Do you remove that somehow as well?
As far as preview, I always edit with two FF browser tabs open, one for editing and one for refreshing and viewing and refreshing and viewing and…
Is there a better way now?
Is there a better way coming in 2.4?
Cheers,
Jim.
@Jim Spencer:
Nothing to remove. Just set your Profile to NOT use the Rich Text Editor. You’re now writing the old fashioned way. All WYSIWY-don’t-G is through the Preview (on another tab). Everything is hand coded or using the few button options. It might be too dark ages for you, but it’s faster and I control EVERYTHING. 😀
Better way? Doubt it. Only the interface will change but I think we’re stuck with the TinyMCE Rich Text Editor with only small improvements.
Sounds great. Something I’d love to see in WP is extended subscriber profiles; I think this would really help to build more ‘community’ into one’s WP blog.
@johno:
What is an extended subscriber profile? I’m sure there is a Plugin for something like that, and I’m sure that it would not be in the core programming of WordPress as it would be a specialty. I’d look to Plugins.
Lorelle,
Hey that is absolutely awesome. Thanks for pointing this out. This will work. I can space the code out and it does not bunch together, which makes it much easier to read.
I am still puzzled by the code. I can’t seem to get the spacing consistent between each image and hr.
Checking the code view in FF I see that the first listing has around the image code.
<a href=”http://europeanho…….
European Horse Trade
However, this is not visible in WP. I like how the first one is formatted and want all other to match, but don’t know how to get that accomplished since WP is not even displaying the ‘s in the editor for the first line of code shown above.
Grateful for the progress,
Jim.
Thanks for the news
@Jim Spencer:
It looks fine to me so I assume you’ve fixed it. But this is now a CSS issue and not directly related to WordPress. Since your business deals with web design, then your web designer expert should be able to fix with easily with CSS containers. Good luck and glad to help.
Lorelle, All set indeed. I really appreciate your advice. Thank You. Jim.
just installed December 11, 2007 2.4 nightly build on my test blog and I can say that the admin section has not been done yet. still looks like all the others have. i will continue to update my test blog with each nights build and post a screen cap as soon as the admin section changes. I am really looking forward to it 🙂
@Stevie: Matt said at WordCamp in San Francisco this year that WordPress is moving to a scheduled release cycle, with a release every three months.
So the release numbers don’t mean the same thing that they used to. In other words, there won’t be any more “major” releases — 2.4 is as significant a release as 3.0 will be. It’ll take some getting used to.
Here’s the link: http://wordpress.org/about/roadmap/
I installed the wordpress 2.4 nightly build for testing and i am allowing people to test it too from my website. 😀
I can’t wait for the new version but I use WordPressMu and I guess it will take even longer to have it available for WordPress 2.4.
Uh oh, roadmap needs to be updated since 2.4 was turfed for 2.5. I downloaded the build for December 27 and the admin had already been worked on, it looks nice I think, but I prefer darker colours like in the older admin panel, but anyway this will do.
@ Stevie:
The builds have little to do with the roadmap as you are getting the developers code, not the code for the “public”. Yes, the first attempt is in there, but this is not the final version. It is the one that everyone is showing off as a sneak preview, but not the final design.
See WordPress 2.4 Release Delayed for more details and information.
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